Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney built a long political partnership, with Swinney serving as her loyal deputy for almost a decade through major moments in her time as first minister. Their alliance spanned her fallout with Alex Salmond, the Covid pandemic and the row over gender self-ID, and even after Peter Murrell’s conviction for embezzling SNP funds, Swinney did not criticise Sturgeon’s oversight of the party’s governance.
That made it a surprise when Sturgeon used the new foreword to her autobiography to criticise the current first minister. Her comments on the SNP’s recent Holyrood election campaign have prompted backlash from former colleagues and raised fresh questions about Swinney’s approach and her standing in the party.
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Giving her view of the election, Sturgeon wrote that there was
“a lack of vision or big picture thinking”in the SNP’s campaign. She said the result was
“an outstanding result”for the party after 19 years in government, but added that there were lessons to be learned.
In her view, the SNP was lucky the Scottish Greens did not stand in more constituencies. She suggested that if they had, they could have reduced John Swinney’s tally of 58 seats.
Sturgeon said it was the Greens who came closest to
“injecting a sense of hope for the future”into the campaign. That comment appeared to nod to issues such as trans rights and climate change, with Sturgeon saying the party had the courage to stand up for what it believed in.
She also warned it would be a
“massive electoral blunder”for the SNP to
“soften”its left-of-centre environmentalist credentials, a possible reference to the party’s changing position on oil and gas.
Sturgeon will have known the headlines her remarks would generate, and some have suggested she is simply seeking more publicity. But her intervention has also drawn criticism from former colleagues and has underlined uncertainty about how Swinney will shape the party going forward.
How have the Swinney-Sturgeon relations changed?
There have long been rumours about the state of the Swinney-Sturgeon friendship, and relations are understood to have cooled over the last couple of years as the Scottish government moved away from some elements of the Sturgeon agenda.
After the SNP’s poor results in the 2024 general election, Sturgeon publicly blamed a lack of focus on independence. This time, she said the party had
“rightly put Scottish independence centrally as an objective but didn't always bring alive the opportunities it offers for people in a tangible sense”.
John Swinney (left) and Nicola Sturgeon (second from left) were among those elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999
How did Swinney respond?
Asked about Sturgeon’s latest comments during a ministerial visit on Wednesday, Swinney was characteristically restrained. He said it was important for people to express their views and described working with Sturgeon as a
“great privilege”, adding that he was now enjoying having his own mandate to govern.
Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth said her former boss and friend was
“entitled to her opinion”, but made clear she did not share it.
Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn told the BBC it was important that former first ministers share their views, but said the election result had produced an
“emphatic mandate”for Swinney that spoke for itself.
Swinney and Sturgeon embraced after the final FMQs earlier this year
What did current ministers say?
Some cabinet colleagues, including people once closely allied to Sturgeon, were more direct in their responses. Education Secretary Mairi McAllan, a former Sturgeon protégé, said the claims were
“nonsense”.
Health Secretary Angela Constance said Sturgeon was
“incorrect”and described Swinney as the best first minister yet, comments that were seen as a dig at Sturgeon.
Of course, the cabinet’s job is to be loyal to the current leader, but the sharp rebukes may also suggest that Sturgeon’s standing in the party has diminished.
Sturgeon praised the Greens for the way they campaigned in May
Why has the backlash grown?
There is frustration within parts of the SNP that Sturgeon has chosen to criticise the party without acknowledging her own role in some of its recent difficulties. One party figure said she would do well to remember her own irritation at Alex Salmond’s backseat driving when she replaced him at the top of the party.
Others have been quoting Clement Attlee and recommending
“a period of silence”.
Some believe Swinney can and should now take the opportunity to distance himself more publicly from the Sturgeon era, given that he now has his own mandate to govern. That may be easier said than done, especially if his predecessor continues to intervene in politics.
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